Educational Inequalities In Italian Common School: Empirical Evidence And Implications For Policies

Luciano Benadusi, Orazio Giancola «La Sapienza» University of Rome

Premise

This paper deals with the Italian experience of common school through a quali-quantitative analysis.It is articulated in three parts:1. A historical glance to the process of reform which introduced

the common school model in lower secondary education and a quick overview of the current growing criticism about its results.

2. A quantitative analysis of these results from the point of view of inequalities, in particular those related to students’ social background.

3. Some conclusions interpreting data and including some hints to the policy implications of the analysis.

Common School in the Italian context

• The only educational reform in Italy, of a common kind, was that concerning the set up of a unified «scuola media» (middle school, hereafter MS), which occurred last century (law 1859 of 1969).

• The following attempts to extend the reform to the first two years of upper secondary schools (USS) in fact failed, in this way keeping the traditional hierarchy between its generalist and technical-vocational channels unchanged.

• Before the reform, the Italian students‘ itineraries were differentiated earlier, at the end of the five year elementary school (ES).

• There were then three parallel channels: the previous «scuola media», the «avviamento professionale» (lower vocational secondary school), the post-ES classes. Only the first allowed access to USS courses.

The middle school reform. 1

The reform had three main purposes:• True universalisation of the final cycle of

compulsory schooling;• Social equality of opportunities;• National cohesion, important in a country

characterised by very great differences and disparities of a cultural, linguistic and territorial nature.

The middle school reform. 2

• The intention of the reformers was to build a school «for all», both «formative and orientative» rather than precociously «selective». Therefore, MS was supposed to no longer be merely a step towards the different channels of USS but an autonomous cycle aimed at completing basic education.

• At the core of the reform was the adjective «unica» (unified) popularly attributed to this school.

Who were the reform’s supporters?

• The reformers looked to Swedish social-democratic experience and to socio-pedagogic literature (such as T. Husen) inspired by the principle of social equality of opportunity.

• At the same time, they brought about a national line of thinking, developed within the leftist political parties (in particular, Communist and Socialist) and teacher syndicates and professional associations (over time widespread even within Catholic ones) from the time of the Resistenza and the birth of the Republic.

The conflict and the compromise between the supporters and the opponents of the

common school model

• The opponents were the conservative part of the Catholic world and of the majoritary Christian-democratic Party (DC), the centre-right liberals and the nostalgic monarchists and fascists.

• After much controversy, in particular concerning the teaching of Latin, the Socialists and the DC reached a compromise on this point, which allowed the approval of the reform but at the cost of introducing a relevant contradiction with the unitarian model of the new school. This was later overcome by law no. 138 of 1977.

Fifty years later: a growing criticism towards the middle school reform. 1

• Today there is growing criticism towards the results of this reform. In fact, a recent report (by Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli or FGA, 2012) has called it the «anello debole» (the weak link in the chain) of the national system of education.

• The thesis of the weak link is backed up mainly by the IEA-TIMMS tests that have shown the fall in the levels of learning outcomes in maths and science between the fourth year of ES and the end of MS.

• Giving leverage to these findings, though they are also open to other interpretations, is the emerging tendency, aboveall on the political right, to go back to the selective model, that we could call pre-common.

Fifty years later: a growing criticism towards the middle school reform. 2

• FGA has done a secondary statistical analysis on the TIMMS data through the «quasi-panel» methodology, giving critics another, not less insidious, argument pertaining to what was a priority for the reform, that is equality of opportunities.

• This analysis has demonstrated that the social origin impact at the end of MS is not only still robust but for the most part it is not traceable to ES but generated within MS.

How the social origin impact is distributed between middle and upper secondary school –

objectives of the analysis

In the same perspective and by way of the same methodology we have tried to estimate how much the social inequalities found among 15 year olds , that is at the current end of compulsory education, are due to MS or to be attributed to the first two years of USS. Aboveall to the widely demonstrated importance of socio-cultural backgrounds on the students’choice of the scholastic track at this level, and according to these choices, the subsequent learning outcomes.

How the social origin impact is distributed between middle and upper secondary school –

methodology• Our analysis employed the 2007 TIMMS dataset (concerning

third year MS students) and the 2009 OECD-PISA dataset, in particular the sub-sample of 15 year olds enrolled in USS. The use of database drawn from different sources may cause some problems of a methodological nature suggesting caution in interpretation, but these are compensated by its advantages.

• In order to make a connection between TIMMS respondents and their equivalent in PISA we used a combination of the following variables, present in both the database and for this purpose recodified: gender, the highest educational qualifications of the parents, the number of books in the home, the migration status, the geographic macro-area.

How the social origin impact is distributed between middle and upper secondary school – analysisThree passages:• Estimate of the net impact of four independent variables (gender,

parental cultural capital, migration status, geographic area) on MS performance.

• Estimate of the net impact of these variables on the performance of 15 year olds enrolled in USS.

• Estimate of the net impact of the same variables on the performance of 15 year olds enrolled in USS, controlled for the MS final performance of their equivalents or “alias”.

Trough three ordinal probit models, the following graph shows the effects (represented by the beta weights) of the independent variables on learning performances in USS when controlled for the previous MS performance.

Social origin impact on performancesPseudo-panel models (N=4.218)

Model 1 (Dependent = performance at the end of MS)

Model 2 (Dependent = performance of 15 year olds at the end of USS)

Model 3 (Dependent = performance of 15 year olds in USS controlled by performance at the end of MS)

Gender Female (vs Male) -0,098 -0,238 -0,136

Migratory background

Non native (vs Native)

-0,126 -0,198 -0,172

Parental cultural capital index*

High (vs Low) 1,389 2,253 1,972

Medium (vs Low) 1,241 1,924 1,738

Geographic areaNorth (vs South) 1,315 1,473 1,431

Center (vs South) 1,024 1,201 1,194

Performance in MS 1,093

Effect of performance in

MS

Effect of family

background

*Parental cultural capital Index is a linear combination (obtained using the PCA tecnique) that synthesizes different variables: higest parental educational status, books at home, possession of cultural goods.

Comment• In the first model social origin (according to both its two

indicators) has the strongest effect, together with geographic area (the North vs the South).

• The second model (gross effects in USS) shows an increase for all the independent variables, but higher for social origin than for the others.

• Even when controlled for the previous MS performance, the (net) effect of social origin in USS remains markedly the strongest (reduction only of 12,5% and 9,7%).

• Also this effect is notably higher than that measured at the end of MS (+ 41,0 % and + 40,0%).

• In the following graph, by two binomial logistic models, we can see the influence that the same variables have on the choice of USS track which, as noted earlier, is a determining factor of the scholastic outcome at this level.

School track choice (models on pseudo-panel data)

Model 1 (Dependent = Choice of a general track vs choice of apre-vocational or vocational track

Model 2 (Dependent = Choice of a general track vs choice of apre-vocational or vocational trackcontrolled by performance in MS)

Gender Female (vs Male) 3,030 2,744

Migratory background

Non native (vs Native)

0,477 0,409

Parental cultural capital index

High (vs low) 6,925 5,641

Medium (vs low) 4,617 3,953

Geographic factorNorth (vs South) 0,523 0,465

Center (vs South) 0,855 0,820

Performance in MS 1,376

Effect of family background

Effect of performance in MS

Comment• In the transition from MS to USS, family background has a

fundamental impact on the choice of school track (in Italy there are a general track – “liceo” – a pre-vocational track – “tecnico” – and a vocational track – “professionale”–.

• Our analysis confirms that track choice depends very intensively on family background. Its influence is not consistently reduced when controlled for the previous performance in MS.

• On the base of these empirical evidences, we can affirm that the transition between the two level of schooling and the school track choice are the most important dynamics in the production of social inequalities in education.

• This is also empirical evidence, along with others, as to the lack of meritocracy in Italian schools.

Conclusions. 1

• In addition to the fall of the average level of results in maths and science, a noteworthy influence of social origin on students’ performances is also ascribable to MS. On this ground, that of a qualitative and no longer only quantitative social equality of opportunity, the reform can’t be considered positive at all.

• While assessment of the other two reform purposes - universal attendance of compulsory school and Italian cultural unification - may be considered respectively totally positive and partially so.

Conclusions. 2

• However, the transition from MS to USS on the one hand incorporates the preexistent inequalities and on the other makes them even stronger.

• Thus, we could say that the crucial turning point in our educational system is the choice made between the different USS channels available to students after MS.

• Summarizing, from an equity point of view the theory that best describes the situation is not MS as the weak link of the chain but, in reality, the process of «cumulative advantage» ( as in Merton’s «Saint Matthew Effect»).

Conclusions. 3

• Perhaps, the reformers had believed too strongly in the efficacy of an operation of structural reengineering by way of law. On the contrary, they underestimated the importance and complexity of innovations in learning environments, teaching practices and staff (teachers and principals) education&training and professional development.

• This would have served as a contrast both to social inequalities and also to the decline in quality of learning outcomes.

Conclusions. 4In our opinion, the answer to today’s problematics is not a regression towards the pre-common school models, but the following neo-common (a less ambiguous term than post-common) policy guidelines: • A greater integration between ES and MS; • An orientative function of MS reinforced and made

more sensitive to equity;• Rendering more common the first two years of USS,

which are today the final part of compulsory school;• Even more innovative, the creation of an educational

environment more flexible and respectful of the many kinds of differences present today in schools.